Posts Tagged ‘Waystone Games’

“Doom clones” we called the rush of games which followed in the wake of Doom in the mid-nineties. It’s a daft and dismissive term in retrospect, though less clinical than “first-person shooter,” but, well, weren’t they basically just Doom? In the same vein, until newcomers start properly distinguishing themselves I’ll happily use “Dote ‘em up” and “Doter” for DotA-y games like Dawngate.

You can now have a bash at Waystone Games’ free-to-play Doter by joining the open beta. What makes Dawngate different to the rest? Publisher EA will tell you it has “a flexible Meta that lets you play your way” but what does that collection of words even mean?

Last week, EA shocked no one by announcing a fantasy-themed MOBA of its very own. RPS went street level to witness the complete lack of riots, and everything went pretty much exactly as expected. Jim Smitherford of Some Random San Francisco Apartment was incredulous. “Wait,” he said, brow furrowed as though on the verge of collapse. “They haven’t done that already? Huh. Also, how did you get inside my home?” Kelly Someoneson of Someplaceburg shared a similar sentiment. “Oh,” she replied when we gave her the news. “Well, good luck to them, I guess.” Then we tapped one last man on the shoulder and asked for his input. “Really? So they’re finally doing that, huh. Well I’ll be,” he exclaimed. It was EA COO Peter Moore.

[Obviously, the above events are highly fictionalized. The following Dawngate video footage and details, however, are most certainly not.]

Here’s a sobering revelation: your parents probably wish you were a MOBA. I mean, they thought they wanted a doctor or a fireman or a pioneering, cancer-curing geneticist when they first birthed you, but these days, everyone is making MOBAs. All your folks can do now is mourn what could have been. So it went for EA, too – casting sullen, disparaging glares at John Madden and Dead Space guy alike – until now. Via a website we weren’t supposed to know about yet, the publisher accidentally revealed Dawngate, a fantasy-themed battler that vaguely claims to offer “a whole new way to experience MOBA gameplay.” What does that entail? Beats me. Details are scant at the moment, but you’ll find a few others after the break.